Mortality of patients with alcoholic liver disease admitted to critical care: A systematic review

Abstract

This review examined the burden of alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) in the intensive care unit, which is increasing, and whether scoring systems can assist in judging prognosis. Embase, Medline and internet databases were searched for relevant articles whose quality was then scored using the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine's (CEBM) critical appraisal tool. Unit mortality of patients with ALD admitted to intensive care in these studies was between 40-50%. In comparison with liver-specific prognostic scoring, physiological scoring systems discriminated better between survivors and nonsurvivors. This is likely to be a reflection of the fact that patients with ALD in intensive care tend to die of multi-organ failure rather than isolated acute liver failure. © The Intensive Care Society 2012.